February Valentines 2012 - We have our first Valentines!

[KjConard]

I love the holidays so much too! I was actually listening to Michael Buble's new Christmas CD this morning! I can't wait to put up our tree! We will probably do it the day after Thanksgiving! Last year I put up our fake tree in our bedroom on Thanksgiving evening. We normally get a real tree as well, but decided this year to just stick with the fake tree. We have a new puppy and I know he is going to make a mess out of the real tree, plus I don't want to be cleaning up pine needles all over the floor with only a month left before the baby is due.

As far as work goes, I was thinking about starting working from home right before Christmas, but as it gets closer, I think I will get bored, so I am going to work for as long as I can before the baby arrives and maybe start working from home a week or two before she is due or whenever I start feeling really uncomfotable. Luckily we own our own businesses so I have a lot of flexibility with where I want to work and how much I want to work. After the baby is here, I was planning on only working from home, but now I'm thinking it would be good for me to work a couple hours a week out of the house to keep my sanity, only depending if my husband is willing to stay at home with the baby at those times. Who knows, I think it is a play it by ear situation for us!

 

[nightkd]

All this talk of Christmas is making me even more excited!!!

I'm a SAHM too...so glad I don't have to worry about maternity leave, especially over here!! I would probably start a week or two before my EDD (I went into labour the day before my EDD with DD) since you'll be huge and probably want to just chill out at home at that point. Gives a little bit of time to get prepared as well. If you go into labour at work, then at least you've cut it close enough to make the most out of your mat leave!!

 

[Jokerette]

I am SO JEALOUS of you with UK maternity leaves 9 months or a year sounds like heaven!

I get 8 weeks paid, plus 4 more weeks unpaid. i am a teacher so then I will have to go back to work for the last 2 weeks of school, then I have the summer off for 8 more weeks. So, all in all it will be about 5 months with about 2 weeks in the middle going back to school to pack up my classroom for the summer break.

i'm on my way now to a routine Dr's visit. Just a few days ago she took me off pelvic rest so finally after about 6 weeks DH and I were able to BD! Well... now I'm slightly nervous because afterwards there was some bright red spotting. Everything I am reading says that can be normal. It stopped shortly afterwards and now its been about 12 hours without anything so hopefully everythings okay, and we just BD'd a bit too deep. (blush)

 

[becstar]

9 months of some pay is lovely but I had to go back after 4.5 months with La as after that point the pay is about £450 a month and that didn't even pay half our rent, let alone anything else.

 

[Guppy051708]

Sorry to change the subject, but are any of you US ladies without health insurance?
Our enrollment for next year is coming up in a couple of weeks...we pay $12,000 per year for it and we simply cannot afford it The MW agreed that we could pay her after our income tax return....and we are gonna keep the FSA (Flex Spending Account) for anything comes up...im a little nervous about not having insurance, but if anything big were to happen then i know i could do the spend down accounts for the hospitals and stuff to help with the bill and then be put on a payment plan...anyone in a similar situation? I would love to keep it but its not affordable at all...we pay $5000 (between premiums and deductable) before insurance even kicks in at all, and then we have to pay co-insurance, totalling us about $12K per year...ugh...

 

[TeQuiero]

Jokerette, KMFX that it is just from , I have had spotting afterwards once or twice, so hopefully that is what it was!!

Guppy, I only have insurance because the kids and I qualify for medicaid. If it weren't for that I would not have any insurance and wouldn't be able to go to the doctors. Not to be too personal, does your DH make too much for you and Isaiah to qualify for medicaid? I know that SC has a higher income limit for pregnancy than for LIF. Before being pregnant I didn't qualify for LIF medicaid, but they will not deny children so the boys had it.

 

[Guppy051708]

Jokerette, KMFX that it is just from , I have had spotting afterwards once or twice, so hopefully that is what it was!!

Guppy, I only have insurance because the kids and I qualify for medicaid. If it weren't for that I would not have any insurance and wouldn't be able to go to the doctors. Not to be too personal, does your DH make too much for you and Isaiah to qualify for medicaid? I know that SC has a higher income limit for pregnancy than for LIF. Before being pregnant I didn't qualify for LIF medicaid, but they will not deny children so the boys had it.

I did qualify for medicaid through half of my pregnancy with my son, but then my husband got a job with Liberty Mutual and we do not qualify anymore ...even for the pregnancy healthcare medicaid, we would have to be a family of 6 in order to qualify...that makes us sound like we make a lot but we dont after we pay for healthcare and student loan debt....we really live pay check to pay check and its so hard ...we were going to put DS on the state health insurance (its called New Hampshire Healthy Kids) and its only for kids, but they refused him coverage on account of we make $5.95 over the monthly allowence that is rediculous! seriously! then maybe my husband should work one hour less each month and then we would get it...ah, sorry for my rant, but its upsetting to us. its like we have to choose between good health or paying our mortgage....or paying for healthy foods.
Thanks for your advice and kind words

 

[TeQuiero]

Jokerette, KMFX that it is just from , I have had spotting afterwards once or twice, so hopefully that is what it was!!

Guppy, I only have insurance because the kids and I qualify for medicaid. If it weren't for that I would not have any insurance and wouldn't be able to go to the doctors. Not to be too personal, does your DH make too much for you and Isaiah to qualify for medicaid? I know that SC has a higher income limit for pregnancy than for LIF. Before being pregnant I didn't qualify for LIF medicaid, but they will not deny children so the boys had it.

I did qualify for medicaid through half of my pregnancy with my son, but then my husband got a job with Liberty Mutual and we do not qualify anymore ...even for the pregnancy healthcare medicaid, we would have to be a family of 6 in order to qualify...that makes us sound like we make a lot but we dont after we pay for healthcare and student loan debt....we really live pay check to pay check and its so hard ...we were going to put DS on the state health insurance (its called New Hampshire Healthy Kids) and its only for kids, but they refused him coverage on account of we make $5.95 over the monthly allowence that is rediculous! seriously! then maybe my husband should work one hour less each month and then we would get it...ah, sorry for my rant, but its upsetting to us. its like we have to choose between good health or paying our mortgage....or paying for healthy foods.
Thanks for your advice and kind words

I am so sorry!! that is terrible! I know SC doesn't like to deny children almost regardless of what their parents make, they do not want the children to have to suffer with poor health care. I wish that it was easier for you, it really is terrible how the state healthcare systems work. When I got disqualified it was because we made about $10 over the income limit for a family of 4, and DH doesn't even want coverage for him, just the kids and I!

 

[nightkd]

Sorry to change the subject, but are any of you US ladies without health insurance?
Our enrollment for next year is coming up in a couple of weeks...we pay $12,000 per year for it and we simply cannot afford it The MW agreed that we could pay her after our income tax return....and we are gonna keep the FSA (Flex Spending Account) for anything comes up...im a little nervous about not having insurance, but if anything big were to happen then i know i could do the spend down accounts for the hospitals and stuff to help with the bill and then be put on a payment plan...anyone in a similar situation? I would love to keep it but its not affordable at all...we pay $5000 (between premiums and deductable) before insurance even kicks in at all, and then we have to pay co-insurance, totalling us about $12K per year...ugh...

I was last time and I was up until recently... We JUST qualified for Medicaid and that's only because DH took a pay cut We were literally a hundred dollars or less over and the cut leaves us losing more than that... Ugh. It's kind of nice to know that we have that back-up so I can get some care if need be and we don't have to worry so much if there's an emergency now though!

I had planned to pay my MW $100 a week from 13-36 weeks, then finish up with tax return if need be... Then we had the ER visits and couldn't afford to pay her anything really, until the tax return... And obviously aren't with her now.

Honestly, with the two big bills we've had (for Evey's birth and for my kidney stone incident) it has worked out CHEAPER for us to be without insurance. The discounts they give for no insurance drop the amount down a lot and then if we pay in full we get ANOTHER discount, as it's out of pocket. With the deductibles and monthly payments for insurance, we would've been paying around the same amount or MORE overall... (with the plans we looked at)

Obviously the bills were for non-emergency, fairly routine things.. If it was something more serious or I had a c-section with Evey, then having insurance would probably have been better..

We have an HSA and didn't use it very well when we were using it. We haven't used it in a long time. Once we've got rid of the $4000 worth of bills we have left (hopefully with no more added in the meantime...) we're just planning to put a bunch into the HSA for now. We'll probably get insurance in case of bigger bills, but figure out deductibles/monthly payments based on us only using it in those cases...

 

[Junebugs]

My last date will be January 1st. I'm but on Feb. 5th but i have to drive a far way to get to work and it will be the middle of winter. I also have 2 weeks vacation so i will be using that aswell..... I really am looking forward to having some time off.

 

[Jokerette]

Guppy, I wish i could help or offer advice. That is a tough one... Its really too bad that you are only like $5 away from the cutoff... ugh. I think if it were me I'd be too scared not to have health insurance, and i think I'd try to find a way to have it just in case during the pregnancy or delivery I needed services more expensive. I'm sending hugs your way and I hope you find your answer... its a very personal choice given the financial situation many people are in... sorry i cant be of more help.


On another note, in regards to my previous placenta previa, and the bleeding I experienced after sex: Doctor did not seem overly concerned with the bleeding from having sex... she said maybe we just need to be more gentle, LOL. She also made me feel better in regards to my placenta placement that if I was still nervous about it still being low then I can have another ultrasound around 34 weeks to help plan my delivery strategy, whether it be vaginal or scheduled C-section. Right now the placenta is 2.5cm from the internal os, and i am really hoping it keeps migrating up because I'd like to try for vaginal delivery, but not at the risk of my baby or myself. I feel soooo much better knowing we will see the placenta again in about 10 weeks!

 

[KellyC75]

Nite Girls ~ Its 10pm Uk time & im shattered But I have so much on my mind, i'll probably lay awake for hours!

 

[JohnsPrincess]

Guppy, I'm really sorry you guys are having a tough time with insurance! That amount does seem completely ridiculous. We are extremely lucky to have insurance through the military and what we do have to pay is affordable!!

Jokerette - Good news!!! I'm glad it wasn't anything serious!!

 

[JohnsPrincess]

I just finished a Christmas present! I crocheted a "bag" for a cousin with an owl face on it. Hard to explain, but it's pretty darn cute. And it's DONE. One more thing to add to the present closet! Way too many things that still need to be made and bought.

 

[Jokerette]

JohnsPrincess - I LOVE your picture with your DH holding the pumpkin!

 

[JohnsPrincess]

JohnsPrincess - I LOVE your picture with your DH holding the pumpkin!

Thank you!! I love it, too! Looks like I'm trying to disguise our faces, but that's how it was actually taken, lol. My friend Kim took some other pictures of just me that day (this past Sunday at the pumpkin patch) but for whatever reason I am NOT smiling like I normally do in ANY of them!! Very annoying! I showed them to my mom and she confirmed, yep, not your smile!! LOL Of course she said I still look great, but I'm not buying it!!

 

[swanxxsong]

Insurance will be our biggest beast bc I get it through my work and hubby works for a very small and private company (7 people) so its not an option through them. we still don't know what we will do. merf.

 

[TeQuiero]

Oh ladies, sorry to change the subject, but I swear after eating dinner tonight I probably gained 10lbs!! I felt like a piggy!!

I also started wondering (when I was looking through the smilies) when would we use the one?? It seems like such an odd one!!

 

[tiger]

when your flashing someone ? or when your telling your labour and birth story about how u didnt give a sh*t if anyone saw your bits !
dont have much of an update ladies, holly is like a little acrobat. i swear i only had about 1 hour yesterday when i didnt feel her move. My husband was completely amazed last night after watching my belly jjump around the place

 

[TeQuiero]

lol, that is funny!! Be like the Dr walked in while I was undressing, so I felt like a ...?
Adelina does not move that much... she likes to move when people aren't touching her, so if I lay in a bed she moves against the bed, but if DH touches my belly she doesn't move!!